Friday, 28 January 2011

EDWARD WOODWARD AS CALLAN WAS THE BADDEST GOODIE.....AND ANTHONY VALENTINE AS TOBY MERES WAS THE GOODEST BADDIE!....

The other day i was watching some of the mass of telly stuff that just keeps on collecting within the SKY + thingey box. One of them was an Arena documentary about the one and definitly only ROLF HARRIS. Our fave Aussie was "KERSPLONGING ;SPLURGIN' N 'CAN YE TELL WOT IT IZ YIT'IN?" away happily painting portraits of various tasty ladies of stage ,screen n' catwalk. But as he slapped the paint on and eventually they evolved into damn good paintings. The bit that struck me was he said that he never drew his pictures out before 'kerspluging'the paint on. I thought i'll have to give that a whirl.

The next programme i sat and watched alone, as the LOVELY LYNNE tends to have no interest in anything i tend to want to watch. As i dont record LOCATION,LOCATION,LOCATION, or, 'COME DINE WITH ME.'I tend to have the telly to myself as Lynne is absorbed in the I-PAD i bought her for x mas. But on this particular occassion as i sat alone watching COLDITZ. A great classic from THE BEEB. With a whole host of stars locked up in the castle. Amongst these 'chaps' were ILLYA KURYAKIN from ,THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E...DAVID MCCALLUM. ROBERT WAGNER, from IT TAKES A THEIF...And damn near every film ever made. But one fellah in it who stood out is the wonderful ANTHONY VALENTINE.The slim steely eyed young man isnt quite that these days. He's older, balder and carrying a bit of weight these days, but you may remember him from doing a stint in'CORONATION STREET' over the last year. But in the old days ,he was one of tellys favourite psycopaths and baddies. He played the commited Nazi officer in Colditz, but this was after his crowning achievment as possibly the nastiest man alive.

One of telly's absolute classics was CALLAN. EDWARD WOODWARD was ,as they say ,'a down at heel' working class goverment assassin with a consience but still as hard as nails and mean as hell.....Great as the 'baddest goodie' on the box. But his 'sidekick and partner was the upper class, possibly not as hard ,but definitly meaner, TOBY MERES, a slimey smart ,slim ,steely eyed ,evil smiling ,old school tie and trendy suited psychotic killer who hated Callan as much as callan hated him, but they were a team and had a fascinating on screen relationship. Meres was played by ANTHONY VALENTINE.The goodest baddie on the box. The I think Toby Meres could've got his own series ,or Valentine could've made a great baddie in a BOND film.

I thought i'd have a go at painting a caricature of our favourite anti-hero, but had a murderous job finding a decent nasty picture of Anthony Valentine. Much to my chagrin ,lots of pictures of him laughing and smiling and looking like the goodfellah he sadly is. But i had a go. The result looks a little funny ,as acrylic paint seems to darken considerably when copied onto the screen. But as a treat to my followers and fans ,just to show how wonderful i am, i've even thrown the Edward Woodward picture i did the other month when he 'popped his clogs', gawd bless 'im. I might get away with the dubious likeness , as its only old farts like meself who remember 'nerdy' stuff like this.

Tim Leatherbarrow

About Me

Short ,but perfectly formed; Tim has been a cartoonist and caricaturist for over 30 years and has worked all over the world for all kinds of clients in the corporate ,social and charitable worls working every kind of event and function you could possibly imagine.I enjoy what i do and want my 'targets' to enjoy what i do ,so i'm an easy going laid back fellah and inject humour into my work.